Зал астрологии с плотью и кровью

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"Okay!" Su Qiao closed the door and said to me, "I'll go get it back now, okay?"

“I’ll go with you, it’ll be safe!” I immediately replied, then turned to Fang Lei, who looked worried, and said, “I’ll be right back.”

"Hmm..." Fang Lei looked at me intently for a long time before saying, "Then be careful."

"Don't worry!" I patted Fang Lei's hand knowingly. I knew that she was just like Yin Xue, but she was not Yin Xue, and no one could replace Yin Xue.

********

Perhaps because a storm was approaching, the campus was almost deserted. The long path, lined with acacia trees, was empty except for Su Qiao and me, who walked quickly with our heads down. The air carried the damp smell unique to the time before a storm, faint and gentle, carrying the earthy fragrance.

The gravel road was strewn with the needle-like petals of the mimosa tree. These weren't actually petals, but rather the calyxes of the mimosa flower, yet they existed in this world with an incomparably alluring beauty. Their pink hue symbolized the romance of love. Their needle-like shape, however, symbolized the cruelty within love. Mutual hurt, yet also tender entanglement. Perhaps all relationships in this world are like this, with cruelty always hidden within beauty. That's why I especially love this tree; even its name is very unique.

Stepping on the freshly fallen petals, I felt their softness beneath my feet. Looking at Su Qiao's rosy cheeks beside me, the scene resembled a painting of a beautiful woman amidst a shower of petals, the falling petals gently landing on her beautiful hair like exquisite headdresses.

"What are you looking at?" Su Qiao asked me, tilting her head to the side.

"Look at these petals, no matter how beautiful they are, they will wither." I stared at the petals on the ground, some of which had already been trampled beyond recognition by human footprints, and had lost their beauty when they first fell.

“That’s because everything in the world needs reincarnation.” Su Qiao looked up at the falling petals and said slowly, “But what if someone refuses to reincarnate?”

"Refusing to reincarnate?" I looked at Su Qiao, whose face was calm and expressionless.

“Because there are too many attachments, and…” Su Qiao suddenly stopped, just staring intently at me without saying a word.

"And hatred, is that it?" I laughed. In this world, only love and hate can prevent people from reincarnating.

“Perhaps!” Su Qiao brushed the petals from her hair and said, “It could be a mixture of love and hate.”

"Really?" I replied curtly, not continuing the conversation, perhaps because of the panic in my heart. Panic? Yes, panic, a kind of inexplicable panic.

Walking silently behind Su Qiao, her back was exactly like Yin Xue's—a pain that would forever pierce my soul. I took a deep breath and reminded myself again, she was gone, gone. Even if her physical form resembled Yin Xue's, her soul could never be the same. I fear I will never find another soul like hers, a soul that loved me so deeply.

"We're here." Su Qiao suddenly stopped. I looked up and realized that we had unknowingly walked to the foot of the teachers' dormitory.

"Wait a moment, I'll go upstairs and get the book back," Su Qiao said.

"Okay, I'll wait for you here." After all, it's best not to go into the female teachers' dormitory, so I decided to stand here and wait obediently.

"I'll be right down!" Su Qiao waved to me and walked up to the dormitory building.

I stood alone downstairs, the sky growing increasingly dark, the gray-black expanse seeming to press down on me, making me feel incredibly oppressed. The gloomy sky was gradually being scribbled over by clusters of black clouds, drawing strange, grotesque shapes.

I was staring down at my toes when a blindingly bright bolt of lightning flashed across the sky as if it had been torn apart. Everything in the world was instantly rendered pale white, and all objects turned white.

Looking up, I saw a small figure in bright red clothes standing on the white dormitory rooftop. That face, so clear in that instant, had blood-red eyes that held nothing but red tears of blood, and a pale face like that of a Japanese geisha. Where the tears of blood slid down, thin cracks appeared on her white face, from which blackish-red liquid gushed forth.

I squinted, the world brighter than ever before, everything appearing as a dazzling white halo. Within this halo, a dark figure seemed to descend from the sky, but I didn't move an inch.

With a loud bang, I heard the sound of countless bones shattering and heads hitting the ground.

At that moment, rainwater and splashing blood splattered onto me at the same time. I felt a lot of pain; the liquid felt like needles piercing my skin.

I looked down and saw a corpse lying silently before me, almost torn to pieces. What was once a living thing was now nothing more than a pile of trash.

Yellow brain matter had spilled out of the cracked head, filling the ground, but was instantly washed away by the torrential rain. I only saw bright red blood and yellow brain matter mixed together, then mixed with the rain, slowly disappearing before my eyes.

The deceased's face was up, revealing an incomprehensible expression—fear, terror, or perhaps relief. I was only drawn to her unusually wide-open eyes, the pupils of which were slowly shrinking, as if still moving.

Slowly...

Slowly...

She turned to me, and I felt her open her mouth, as if she were saying something...

But……

sorry……

The rain is too loud, I can't hear it!

The fresh scent of rain in the air was slowly being masked by the stench of blood. I felt strange fluctuations in the air, clinging to my skin and seeping into every pore.

It's so cold, is it because it's raining?

I stared coldly at the corpse, feeling no fear. Perhaps my heart had become numb, or perhaps I had simply grown accustomed to it.

Then, I heard a series of noises and screams coming from the dormitory building. Many people rushed out, and countless figures flickered in front of me, but I couldn't see their faces clearly. All of them had blank faces, like faceless ghosts wandering around me.

until……

It wasn't until Su Qiao's faint voice rang in my ears that I realized I was soaked to the bone and ice-cold. Looking up, I saw Su Qiao's terrified face. Her face was so pale, and the rain had soaked her hair, the black strands clinging tightly to her forehead and neck. She looked so fragile and helpless. The mist in her eyes reminded me of Yin Xue from many years ago, that night, also a rainy night, just as damp, just as alluring.

I closed my eyes, amidst the cacophony of voices around me...

Volume Three: Delicacies of Hell, Chapter Twenty-Six: Ancient Books

Volume Three: Delicacies of Hell, Chapter Twenty-Six: Ancient Books

The rain has stopped; this torrential downpour, which came and went so quickly, seemed to have come only to witness one person's death.

It's so cold. My whole body is soaked with icy rainwater, and I can feel my body shivering uncontrollably. Even the hot water in my hands can't warm me up at all.

Looking up at Su Qiao, her face was as white and translucent as jade porcelain, and her eyes were as bright and black as black gemstones.

"How are you?" Su Qiao looked at me and said, "The police will be here soon."

"I bet Ni Ming will go crazy if he sees me." I chuckled to myself as I downed my water, looking at the crowd of onlookers outside the dormitory building and the corpses lying silently. Just a moment ago, something was alive, and now it was gone. It turns out all of this can happen so quickly and simply. Just a fall from a great height, and it's all over.

"She's my friend." A strange expression appeared on Su Qiao's face. Was it regret, remorse, or perhaps guilt?

"The person who borrowed that book?" I suddenly became nervous.

"Yes." Su Qiao lowered her head, covered her face with her hands, and after a long while, slowly said, "I shouldn't have lent it to her!"

“No!” I shook my head and said, “The murderer killed people according to the lending list, but she wasn’t on the list, so how could she have been killed?”

"I don't know, I don't know!" Su Qiao shook her head, somewhat agitated, and said, "She was just talking to me! She even said she'd treat me to wedding candy! She's getting married, she would never commit suicide!"

“That was murder.” I looked at the empty glass. I could still feel the water ripples at the bottom of the glass.

"But didn't you say the murderer came from a list?" Su Qiao asked.

“There’s only one possibility.” I looked up at Su Qiao and said, “The murderer saw her looking at this book by chance and assumed that she must have borrowed it from the library, so he did it.”

"You mean..." Su Qiao asked, "The murderer was very likely in this school just now?"

"Or maybe they're actually from this school." I heard the sound of police cars, a very unsettling sound. I've always wondered, do police cars have to use such a disturbing sound? Why can't we use a more peaceful sound?

I closed my eyes again. I didn't want to see Ni Ming's face, but unfortunately, I knew I couldn't escape this time either.

********

Exhausted, I finally left the dormitory building after Ni Ming's interrogation. Thankfully, I now had an alibi, completely ruling out any chance of committing the crime; otherwise, Ni Ming would have definitely taken me to the police station. Su Qiao, however, remained in the dormitory building, saying she wanted to say a final goodbye to her friend, the deceased Gu Lian.

As I squeezed through the ever-growing crowd of onlookers, I caught a glimpse of someone out of the corner of my eye.

Yu Bo?

What was he doing here? I quickly chased after him.

"Senior?" I called out to him from behind.

His eyes were bloodshot, his lips were purple, and he was soaked in sweat, looking extremely disheveled.

"Lin Xiao," Yu Bo replied calmly, then glanced cautiously behind me before asking, "What are you doing here?"

"Oh, something unlucky just happened." I casually avoided the topic of the dead and asked, "Then what are you doing here? Don't you dislike this school?"

“Disliking something doesn’t mean you won’t come,” Yu Bo said. “Sometimes, the more you dislike something, the more you want to get close to it; that’s just how people are.”

"Really?" I approached him and saw that his left hand was clenched into a fist, and blood seemed to be seeping from between his fingers.

"I slipped and fell just now. The roads are slippery when it rains." Perhaps noticing my confusion, Yu Bo showed me the wound. It was a very deep cut on his thumb, almost to the bone. Even though the blood had slightly congealed, some blood was still seeping out.

"You should go see a doctor!" I said with concern.

"It's nothing, it's no big deal." Yu Bo shrugged nonchalantly and said, "I've had injuries several times worse when I was learning Taekwondo, and it's still nothing."

"Taekwondo?" I muttered softly, sighing, "I haven't practiced in a long time. My master always said I was lazy."

"Yes, he also said you have great talent, but you just don't work hard enough." Yu Bo seemed to recall his university days, and a long-lost smile appeared on his face.

“Speaking of Teacher Zhao Xing, it’s been a long time since the three of us, master and apprentice, have gotten together. Why don’t we go find him now?” I suggested.

"This...?" Yu Bo seemed unwilling to see him.

"Oh, what a rare opportunity!" I insisted on stopping Yu Bo. At that moment, I also wished I could go back to those days, the days when the three of us, master and apprentice, were happy together. But I didn't know that those days would never return. Back then, I was just doing futile things to console myself.

Yu Bo didn't break free from me, but his face was still pale, so I had no choice but to bite the bullet and pull Yu Bo into the taxi to find Zhao Xing.

On the way, I called Fang Lei and briefly told her what had happened. Then, Yu Bo and I headed to the small villa filled with the smell of Chinese herbs. This time, I noticed a faint, lingering smell of blood in the air.

Am I being too suspicious?

But this smell is so familiar to me, there's no way I could be mistaken.

With uneasy hearts, Yu Bo and I finally reached the door of Zhao Xing's room. The door gave me an inexplicable sense of unease; it looked damp, as if covered in a layer of black fuzz. The musty smell made me want to sneeze. Turning to look at Yu Bo, my heart skipped a beat. His eyes were fixed on what was in front of him. Perhaps because of the dim light, his face appeared entirely bluish-black. His eyes were sunken, and his lips were a bloodless white. His already gaunt face now looked more like a skinned skull, even his neck was so thin that the veins were visible beneath the skin. If I didn't know he was definitely a living person, I would have thought I was seeing a zombie.

"Who is it?" A hoarse, low voice came from inside the door after I knocked.

“It’s Yu Bo and me, Teacher Zhao Xing. We’ve come to see you,” I said.

There was silence inside the door, except for a faint, heavy breathing sound, followed by an eerie stillness, as if a monster had devoured all sound in the world. I couldn't even hear my own breathing or heartbeat. Looking at Yu Bo beside me, I saw a strange white halo around his body, the result of a camera with an improperly focused lens. The halo was still fluctuating, slowly growing larger, like disturbed air currents rapidly converging.

What was that? I rubbed my eyes and looked again, but there was nothing there.

Just then, the tightly closed door opened, and I saw Zhao Xing standing in front of us. He still had a sallow complexion and bluish eyes, but now he had an excited look on his face.

Chapter Eight: Dreams

"Come in quickly!" Zhao Xing let us into the room. This time, the room was filled with books, which seemed to be old, yellowed adult books. Upon closer inspection, they were all written in traditional Chinese characters with a brush.

Could it be an ancient book?

I carefully avoided stepping on the books on the floor, then looked at Zhao Xing and asked, "Teacher, these books...?"

"I'm looking!" Zhao Xing said excitedly, pulling out one of the books. "I'm looking for the origins of ancient preservatives."

"Did you find it?" Yu Bo suddenly interrupted.

"This preservative seems to have other uses as well." Zhao Xing happily waved the book in front of us and said, "Because I need to research information about this ancient preservative, I often go to the antique market. I didn't expect to run into someone three days ago who had so many ancient books. I just flipped through them casually, and there were so many records about this thing inside. I really hit the jackpot."

"Who would have so many ancient books?" I frowned. Could it be cultural relic smuggling? That's illegal!